Customizing sequences of content objects

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are examples of systems, apparatus, methods, and computer program products customizing sequences of content objects in an educational content management system. In some implementations, educational content objects can be displayed. A first educational content object selection can be processed. A content object sequence can be generated or updated and the first educational content object can be added to the content object sequence. A second educational content object can be added to the content object sequence. The content object sequence can be shared with a user of an enterprise learning system.

PRIORITY DATA

This patent document claims priority to co-pending and commonly assignedU.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/402,775, titled “CUSTOMIZINGCONTENT SEQUENCES IN A WEB PUBLISHING PROCESS,” by Torman et al., filedon Sep. 30, 2016 (Attorney Docket No. SLFCP238P/1867PROV), which ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure as it appears in the United States Patent andTrademark Office patent file or records but otherwise reserves allcopyright rights whatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This patent document generally relates to content objects of a contentmanagement system. More specifically, this patent document disclosestechniques for customizing sequences of content objects in aneducational content management system.

BACKGROUND

“Cloud computing” services provide shared resources, applications, andinformation to computers and other devices upon request. In cloudcomputing environments, services can be provided by one or more serversaccessible over the Internet rather than installing software locally onin-house computer systems. As such, users having a variety of roles caninteract with cloud computing services.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The included drawings are for illustrative purposes and serve only toprovide examples of possible structures and operations for the disclosedinventive systems, apparatus, methods and computer program products.These drawings in no way limit any changes in form and detail that maybe made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit andscope of the disclosed implementations.

FIG. 1 shows a system diagram of an example of a system 100 forcustomizing sequences of content objects in an educational contentmanagement system, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 2 shows a flow chart of an example of a method 200 for customizingsequences of content objects in an educational content managementsystem, in accordance with some implementations.

FIGS. 3A and 3B show examples of generating content object sequences, inaccordance with some implementations.

FIG. 4 shows an example of user interface 400 in the form of a graphicaluser interface (GUI) as displayed on a computing device for generatingcontent object sequences, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 5 shows an example of user interface 500 in the form of a GUI asdisplayed on a computing device displaying content object sequences, inaccordance with some implementations.

FIG. 6 shows an example of sharing a content object sequence, inaccordance with some implementations.

FIG. 7A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service can be used in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 7B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 7A and various possible interconnections between theseelements.

FIG. 8A shows a system diagram of an example of architectural componentsof an on-demand database service environment 900, in accordance withsome implementations.

FIG. 8B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environment,in accordance with some implementations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Examples of systems, apparatus, methods and computer-readable storagemedia according to the disclosed implementations are described in thissection. These examples are being provided solely to add context and aidin the understanding of the disclosed implementations. It will thus beapparent to one skilled in the art that implementations may be practicedwithout some or all of these specific details. In other instances,certain operations have not been described in detail to avoidunnecessarily obscuring implementations. Other applications arepossible, such that the following examples should not be taken asdefinitive or limiting either in scope or setting.

In the following detailed description, references are made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the description and in whichare shown, by way of illustration, specific implementations. Althoughthese implementations are described in sufficient detail to enable oneskilled in the art to practice the disclosed implementations, it isunderstood that these examples are not limiting, such that otherimplementations may be used and changes may be made without departingfrom their spirit and scope. For example, the operations of methodsshown and described herein are not necessarily performed in the orderindicated. It should also be understood that the methods may includemore or fewer operations than are indicated. In some implementations,operations described herein as separate operations may be combined.Conversely, what may be described herein as a single operation may beimplemented in multiple operations.

Some of the disclosed implementations of systems, apparatus, methods andcomputer program products are for customizing sequences of contentobjects in an educational content management system.

In a conventional learning environment, there are standard sequences ofeducational content that are curated by a department and/or organizationof the learning environment. One example of a standard sequence is onthe basics of CRM. In one example, as part of onboarding new employees,a manager assigns sequences of educational content to the new employees,e.g., a guided learning path titled “CRM Beginner.” Unfortunately, someof the standard sequences include portions of educational content thatare considered by the manager to be irrelevant for the onboardingexperience. For example, the manager knows that the “CRM Beginner”sequence includes content that is too basic for the employees being onboarded, and he also knows that some of educational content from the“CRM Intermediate” sequence would be appropriate. As such, the managermay either assign the two sequences or only the CRM Beginner, which canresult inefficient allocation of employee time as part of theironboarding experience.

Some of the disclosed techniques can be used for customizing sequencesof content objects in an educational content management system. In someof the disclosed techniques, a user customizes sequences of contentobjects, e.g., module objects, project objects, etc., by choosing toinclude or exclude content objects according to the user's preference.For example, the manager from the example above can customize their ownversion of a “CRM Beginner” sequence by removing some modules that themanager believes are not relevant and adding some useful modules fromthe “CRM Intermediate” sequence. As such, the manager can assign hiscustomized sequence to new employees as part of their on-boardingexperience in a manner he believes to be the most beneficial, allowingfor more effective allocation of employee time during their onboardingexperience.

In another particularly useful implementation of some of the disclosedtechniques, a motivated user interested in advancing their career cancustomize sequences of content objects which represent a trackablecareer plan for the user. In this example, the user has as muchauthority as a training department or as their manager in determiningtheir career path and achievements. As a result, custom sequences ofcontent objects can be used by individuals to self-advocate for theiradvancement and learning opportunities.

These and other implementations may be embodied in various types ofhardware, software, firmware, and combinations thereof. For example,some techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, at least in part,by computer-readable media that include program instructions, stateinformation, etc., for performing various services and operationsdescribed herein. Examples of program instructions include both machinecode, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher-levelcode that may be executed by a computing device such as a server orother data processing apparatus using an interpreter. Examples ofcomputer-readable media include, but are not limited to, magnetic mediasuch as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media suchas CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical media; and hardware devices that arespecially configured to store program instructions, such as read-onlymemory (“ROM”) devices and random access memory (“RAM”) devices. Theseand other features of the disclosed implementations will be described inmore detail below with reference to the associated drawings.

In some but not all implementations, the disclosed methods, apparatus,systems, and computer-readable storage media may be configured ordesigned for use in a multi-tenant database environment. The term“multi-tenant database system” can refer to those systems in whichvarious elements of hardware and software of a database system may beshared by one or more customers. For example, a given application servermay simultaneously process requests for a great number of customers, anda given database table may store rows of data such as feed items for apotentially much greater number of customers. The term “query plan”generally refers to one or more operations used to access information ina database system.

A “user profile” or “user's profile” is generally configured to storeand maintain data about a given user of the database system. The datacan include general information, such as name, title, phone number, aphoto, a biographical summary, and a status, e.g., text describing whatthe user is currently doing. As mentioned below, the data can includemessages created by other users. Where there are multiple tenants, auser is typically associated with a particular tenant. For example, auser could be a salesperson of a company, which is a tenant of thedatabase system that provides a database service.

The term “record” generally refers to a data entity, such as an instanceof a data object created by a user of the database service, for example,about a particular (actual or potential) business relationship orproject. The data object can have a data structure defined by thedatabase service (a standard object) or defined by a user (customobject). For example, a record can be for a business partner orpotential business partner (e.g., a client, vendor, distributor, etc.)of the user, and can include information describing an entire company,subsidiaries, or contacts at the company. As another example, a recordcan be a project that the user is working on, such as an opportunity(e.g., a possible sale) with an existing partner, or a project that theuser is trying to get. In one implementation of a multi-tenant databasesystem, each record for the tenants has a unique identifier stored in acommon table. A record has data fields that are defined by the structureof the object (e.g., fields of certain data types and purposes). Arecord can also have custom fields defined by a user. A field can beanother record or include links thereto, thereby providing aparent-child relationship between the records.

FIG. 1 shows a system diagram of an example of a system 100 forcustomizing sequences of content objects in an educational contentmanagement system, in accordance with some implementations. System 100includes a variety of different hardware and/or software components thatare in communication with each other. In the non-limiting example ofFIG. 1, system 100 includes user devices 102 a-102 c, server 104, atleast one content object sequence 110, and database 112.

User devices 102 a-102 c can be operated by a variety of users withdifferent roles and/or permissions. In the example of FIG. 1, userdevice 102 a is a laptop computer, user device 102 b is a tablet, anduser device 102 c is a smartphone. Examples of users operating userdevices 102 a-102 c may include business users, technical users, contentgenerating users, learning users, etc. It should be noted be noted thatthe list of users is not limited to the above-mentioned examples. Othertypes of users are envisioned and may be adjusted and/or added dependingon customer need. In some implementations, user device 102 a providesselections of educational content objects, e.g., educational contentobject 106 a to server 104. Examples of educational content objects mayinclude path objects, module objects, unit objects, project objects,quiz objects, badge objects, first call deck objects, super badgeobjects, custom objects, external objects, stand-and-deliver badges, 1:1meetings, or reviewing content objects, etc. It should be noted be notedthat the list of educational content objects is not limited to theabove-mentioned examples. Other types of educational content objects areenvisioned and may be adjusted and/or added depending on customer need.Also or alternatively, user device 102 b can provide educational contentobject 106 b to server 104. Users of user devices 102 a and 102 b mayselect different educational content objects to customize content objectsequences, allowing for additional possibilities for a user to discovereducational content, as well as how educational content is accessed bythe user. In some implementations, a user may add publicly availablecontent objects and using a sharing and/permission mechanism, e.g.types/roles of users.

Examples of user devices 102 a-102 c include, but are not limited to adesktop computer or portable electronic device such as a smartphone, atablet, a laptop, a wearable device such as Google Glass®, anotheroptical head-mounted display (OHMD) device, a smart watch, etc. Each ofuser devices 102 a-102 c can display different types of user interfaces,for instance, user interface 108 a, user interface 108 b, and userinterface 114. User interfaces 108 a, 108 b, and 114 can be displayedfor different purposes. For example, user interfaces 108 a and 108 b canprovide functionality to user devices 102 a and 102 b such that usersmay access, update, or otherwise modify content object sequences.Whereas user interface 114 can provide functionality to user devices 102c such that users may being the learning process of a customized guidedlearning experience using a content object sequence created at userinterface 108 a.

Server 104 may control communication with other components of system100. This communication may be facilitated through a combination ofnetworks and interfaces. Server 104 may handle and process data requestsfrom user devices 102 a-102 c of system 100. In some implementations,generating content object sequences can be facilitated through one ormore application programming interfaces (APIs) restricted to anappropriate set of users, allowing for extensibility in assigning and/ortracking content object sequences based on the needs of a particularorganization. Similarly, the ability to select or view content objectsequences can be restricted by API access. For example, a user withpermission to create content object sequences would have access to APIsconfigured to access content stored in database 112. In someimplementations, creating and maintaining content object sequences canbe facilitated through an API and a third party management system, e.g.,a learning management system not controlled by system 100. Contentobject sequences can be generated using API requests. In one example,interaction with content object sequences is facilitated through publicand/or private APIs to add, update, or otherwise modify content objectsequences. For example, adding a module object to a new content objectsequence. In some implementations, a series of API requests can beexecuted to organize and arrange the sequential order of content objectsequence 110. A variety of different API requests can be used to handlecontent object sequences. For example, a create content object sequencerequest, a delete content object sequence request, an update contentobject sequence request, an execute search of content object sequencerequest, a get content object sequence request, a version content objectsequence request, or a custom API request. In one example, API requestsconfigured to adjust the sequential order of many module objects can beexecuted by server 104. Similarly, API requests configured to updateand/or generate content object sequences, as well as, share contentobject sequences can be executed by server 104. In some implementations,the processing of a series of API requests is asynchronous, which canallow for an uninterrupted customer experience as changes are being madeto content object sequences. In other implementations, server 104provides user interfaces 108 a, 108 b, and 114 to user devices 102 a-102c respectively.

Database 112 can be configured to receive, transmit, store, update, andotherwise maintain educational content objects and content objectsequences. In some implementations, database 112 is configured on a peruser basis, allowing any one of hundreds of thousands of users tocreate, edit, or delete content object sequences associated with theiraccount. In some implementations, the order of content object sequencescan be customized. In some implementations, users can publish and sharecontent object sequences with a public audience. Also or alternatively,content objects sequences can be published securely to groups of membersor subscribers of a particular content object sequence. There can bevarious ways to discover content object sequences. For example, approvedcontent object sequences can be sent to a user as a notification, e.g.,push notification, users can search approved content object lists, andrecommendations can be generated and provided to users. In someimplementations, searching for content object sequences can beimplemented according to taxonomy, or a categorization model, that makesit easy to discover content object sequences within the context of otherareas of an enterprise learning system, e.g., viewing an existingcontent object sequence at a profile of a user. Consequently,discoverability of content object sequences can reduce user frustrationand allow a user to find relevant content object sequence. In someimplementations, database 112 can also store customer relationshipmanagement (CRM) records. Examples of CRM records include instances ofaccounts, opportunities, leads, cases, contacts, contracts, campaigns,solutions, quotes, purchase orders, etc.

FIG. 2 shows a flow chart of an example of a method 200 for customizingsequences of content objects in an educational content managementsystem, in accordance with some implementations.

In block 204 of FIG. 2, educational content objects are displayed inuser interface 108 a of FIG. 1 of user device 102 a. In someimplementations, educational content objects are displayed in responseto a user of user device 102 a logging into their enterprise learningsystem account. In other implementations, educational content objectsare displayed in response to the user of user device 102 a navigating toanother user's profile. In still other implementations, educationalcontent objects can be displayed when a user navigates to a tabcorresponding to a type of content object, e.g., module object tab, pathobject tab, etc. Educational content objects can have different types ofcontent, e.g., text and pictures for a learning topic, and metadata,e.g., roles associated with the educational content object, difficultlylevel associated with the content object, etc. In some implementations,a variety of educational content objects can be displayed, e.g., unitobjects, module objects, path objects (or trails), or other educationalcontent objects. In some implementations, a module object can be aseries of sequential unit objects associated with a particular topic orsubject area. Once all the unit objects in a module object are complete,a user may receive a badge representing a badge object that will bedisplayed on a user's profile webpage on the enterprise learning system.In addition, a user's profile can display content object sequencescreated by that user with information about each sequence. For example,a user's profile might include a “My Content Object Sequences” sectionwith many content object sequences displayed in the section, as wellinformation about the content object sequences, e.g., the number ofviews, the number of completions, the number of attempts, the datecreated, etc. In some implementations, a unit object takes you throughseveral learning objectives for features, tools, or best practicesrelated to a topic, e.g., database system administration. Unit objectscan conclude with an assessment, e.g., a challenge, or quiz object, thatreinforces a learning objective. A challenge can be an interactivehands-on challenge within a learning environment that simulates orrepresents a system or tool within the organization that the user wouldotherwise use to perform their job like a word processor or order entryapplication. If a user completes a challenge, the user can earn pointsthat are added to a user's profile. Similar to module objects being acollection of unit objects, path objects can be a collection of moduleobjects. In some implementations, path objects are the highest contentobject in a content object hierarchy that is organized as a guidedlearning path, discussed further below. In other implementations, a listof several path objects on different topics can be displayed. In otherimplementations, a single educational content object can be displayed.For example, user 1 may visit the profile of user 2, and within thewebpage for the profile of user 2, there may be a section for pathobjects recently completed by that user. In this example, user 2 mayhave recently completed only one path object, e.g., “CRM Basics.”

In block 208 of FIG. 2, educational content object 106 a of FIG. 1 isreceived from user device 102 a. For example, FIGS. 3A and 3B showexamples of generating content object sequences, in accordance with someimplementations. In some implementations, a user selects a buttonassociated with display of pane 300 for inputting information about anew content object sequence. In FIG. 3A, a user may select name field302 to add a name to the content object sequence. Similarly, afterinputting a name associated with the content object sequence, the usermay select description field 304 to add a brief description to thecontent object sequence. The name and description associated with thecontent object sequence can be useful for allowing search anddiscoverability of the new content object sequence. After inputting thedescription in description field 304, the user may select button 306 tosend a request and/or selection to server 104 of FIG. 1. Also oralternatively, after selecting button 306 of FIG. 3, the selection mayalso be used by server 104 of FIG. 1 to generate and/or update a contentobject sequence, discussed further below. For example, if the selectedcontent object is the first content object to be added to the contentobject sequence, then a content object sequence can be created to startthe process of customizing and adding educational content objects to anew content object sequence. After processing the selection, contentobject sequence 308 can be displayed as including educational contentobject 310, e.g., a module titled “Selling Lightning Fast!” FIG. 3B showanother example of how a first selection of an educational contentobject can be provided to server 104 of FIG. 1. For example, a user canselect button 312 of FIG. 3, causing a drop down pane to appear withadditional selection options. These selection options can includedifferent types of content objects, for instance, adding a path object,adding a module object, adding a project object, or adding a badgeobject. A user may select one of these options to create a new contentobject sequence based on the type of selected content object. Forexample, if a user selects add module object, then a selection of themodule object can be provided to server 104 of FIG. 1. Returning to FIG.3, module object 314 includes button 318, which can be selected by auser to provide a module object titled “Sell Lightning Faster!” toserver 104 of FIG. 1. Similarly, module object 316 of FIG. 3 includesbutton 320, which can also be selected by the user to provide a moduleobject titled “Process Automation” to server 104 of FIG. 1.

In block 212 of FIG. 2, content object sequence 110 of FIG. 1 isgenerated by server 104. In some implementations, content objectsequence 110 is generated in response to receiving educational contentobject 106 a from user device 102 a. Content object sequence 110 can bestored and otherwise maintained at database 112 among many other contentobject sequences. Also or alternatively, a previously generated contentobject sequence can be updated in response to receiving educationalcontent object 106 a. The previously generated content object sequencecan be accessed using database 112. For example, FIG. 4 shows an exampleof user interface 400 in the form of a GUI as displayed on a computingdevice for generating content object sequences, in accordance with someimplementations. In FIG. 4, content object sequence 402 includeseducational content objects 404 a-404 c, which may include acorresponding link for each respective educational content object.Content object sequence 402 can include a sequential order of theeducational content objects that can be customized by a user. Thesequential order can be stored as alphanumeric positions associated withcontent object sequence. In the example of FIG. 4, educational contentobjects 404 a-404 c are arranged in a sequential order such thateducational content object 404 a has a first position, educationalcontent object 404 b has a second position, and educational contentobject 404 c has a third position. As such, when a user accesses contentobject sequence 402, the user may first be presented with content fromeducational content object 404 a. Upon completing educational contentobject 404 a, the next educational content object presented to the userwould be educational content object 404 b. In some implementations,content object sequence 402 can be provided to user device 102 a of FIG.1 and displayed in user interface 400 of FIG. 4 as a representation of apreview presentation of content object sequence 402. As such, a user mayview the content object sequence 402 and educational content objects 404a-404 c as they would appear to an end user, e.g., at user device 102 cof FIG. 1. In some implementations, content object sequences can beconfigured to prevent a user from attempting to complete a more advancedstep in the process, e.g., educational content object 404 b, prior tocompleting an earlier step in the sequence, e.g., educational contentobject 404 a. In some implementations, many preview presentations can besent to other users, for instance, user device 102 b.

In another example, FIG. 5 shows an example of user interface 500 in theform of a GUI as displayed on a computing device displaying contentobject sequences, in accordance with some implementations. In FIG. 5,user interface 500 includes content object sequences 504 a-504 f. Insome implementations, a user may be presented this view in userinterface 500 upon selection of tab 506 b, e.g., “Discover Sequences”tab. In FIG. 5, content object sequence 504 c and content objectsequence 504 f include progress bars 510 a and 510 b that can bedisplayed to users so that they are aware of whether they have begun aparticular content object sequence and how far along they are in aparticular content object sequence. In addition, a due date indicationcan be displayed as part of a content object sequence. For example,content object sequence 504 includes progress bar 510 b and due dateindication 512. As such a user viewing user interface 500 can becomeaware that a content object sequence has a due date with an upcomingdeadline. For example, content object sequence 504 f is due in 3 days.In other implementations, if a user were to select content objectsequence 504 f, a user interface displaying the educational contentobjects can also include a similar progress bar, as well as a due dateindication indicating that content object sequence 504 f is due in 3days. Similarly, a user's profile can display progress bars for thecontent object sequences he or she is working on. Due date indication512 can be displayed as a different color than educational contentobject 504 to indicate the relative immediacy of the upcoming deadline,e.g., yellow for an approaching deadline, red for past due, etc. Inother implementations, the user may select tab 506 a to be presentedwith any content object sequences that the user has created. In somecases, after creating a content object sequence, e.g., content objectsequence 402 of FIG. 4, content object sequence 402 might be displayedalongside any other content object sequences displayed as part of a “Mysequences” webpage.

In block 216 of FIG. 2, educational content object 106 b of FIG. 1 isreceived at server 104. In some implementations, block 216 of FIG. 2 canbe performed in a similar manner to block 208. In some implementations,educational content object 106 a is received from user device 102 b, butin other implementations, educational content object 106 b can bereceived from user device 102 a. Returning to FIGS. 3A and 3B, aftereducational content object 310 has been added to content object sequence308, further educational content objects can be added to content objectsequence 308 by selecting buttons 318 and 320. Also or alternatively,additional content objects can be added to content object sequence 308after receiving a selection associated with button 312. In anotherexample using FIG. 4, an additional educational content object can beadded using button 406 of educational content object 404 d to provide anadditional selection to server 104 of FIG. 1. Additionally, a user mayselect button 408 of FIG. 4 to provide an additional selection of aneducational content object to server 104 of FIG. 1. As discussed furtherabove, upon receiving additional educational content objects, server 104may assign positions to educational content objects in the contentobject sequence. In some implementations, server 104 can processmodifications to content objects such that the modification changes orupdates the sequential order of the educational content objects in thecontent object sequence. For example, a user may select content object404 a and drag it below content object 404 b, causing the sequentialorder of content object sequence 402 to be updated. In another example,a user may select a button located near educational content object 404 aand adjust a numeric value, e.g., from 1 to 2. Other modifications tocontent object sequence 402 can include adding and/or updating metadata410 a-410 d associated with content object sequence 402. Metadata 410 amay be a drop down menu for adding metadata about roles associated withcontent object sequence 402, e.g., employee, manager, business user,administrator, etc. Metadata 410 b may be a drop down menu for addingmetadata about a skill level associated with content object sequence402, e.g., beginner, intermediate, or advanced. Metadata 410 c may be adrop down menu for adding metadata about products associated withcontent object sequence 402, e.g., Trailhead, Lightning, etc. Metadata410 d may be a drop down menu for adding metadata concerning tagsassociated with content object sequence 402, e.g., frameworks,tutorials, customization, etc.

In some implementations, a modification to content object sequence 402can include selecting recommendation button 412. Upon selectingrecommendation button 412, user interface 400 can display a recommendededucational content object, for instance, educational content object 404d. The recommendation button can be used to suggest additionaleducational content objects that are related to a content objectsequence that a user is currently working on. The manner in whichrecommended content objects are displayed may vary according todifferent implementations of a recommendation engine that may use acombination of traditional search algorithms, machine learningtechniques or programmatic algorithms. For example, a recommendededucational content object can be provided based on the title of thecontent object sequence, for instance, a content object sequenced titled“Introduction to Lightning” might receive recommended educationalcontent objects such as “Lightning Basics” and “Migrate to Lightning.”In another example, a recommended educational content object can bedisplayed in near real-time based on comparing groups of users and thetheir content interaction behavior. For example, a manager isrecommended educational content objects based on what other managers areassigning the employees they are supervising. Criteria for assessingsimilar groups include job title, department, interests based onassociated records, etc. Criteria for interaction behavior includewhether similar content object sequences were viewed, started, orcompleted, etc. After user interface 400 displays educational contentobject 404 d, a user may select button 406 to add the educationalcontent object 404 d to content object sequence 402. Also oralternatively, if the user decides that the educational content object404 d is not relevant to content object sequence 402, the user mayinstead decide to generate another recommendation by selectingrecommendation button 412 again.

In block 216 of FIG. 2, content object sequence 110 of FIG. 1 is sharedwith another user of enterprise learning system 100, for instance,content object sequence 110 can be shared with a user of user device 102c. Permissions can be identified for users and levels of access can bedetermined based on the identified permission. In one example, adetermination includes a notification of that the content objectsequence has been created and is stored in database, which can allow anypublic user to access the content object sequence. As anotherillustration, FIG. 6 shows an example of sharing a content objectsequence, in accordance with some implementations. After selecting ashare button, pane 600 can be displayed on a user device. Pane 600 caninclude a visibility type 602, a shareable link 604, assignment field606, distribution list 608, and user information 610 a. User information610 a can include the name of the user that will have access to thecontent object sequence, as well as, a due date to assign that user forwhen he or she should have completed the content object sequence.

Also or alternatively, access to content object sequences can be basedon levels of access allowing creation and publication of content objectsequences. In some implementations, custom sequences of educationalcontent objects may be restricted at a customer level, discussed furtherbelow regarding multitenancy. For example, restricting access on a perorganization basis can be important to protect sensitive information,e.g., Company A does not want Company B to view their proprietary salesmethodology. In other implementations, there may be more granularrestrictions, e.g., at a group level. For example, different groupscreating content object sequences can restrict access to within thatgroup and control when the content object sequence can be reused oraccessed by other groups of employees. For example, group a may wish torestrict access to a content object sequence until the final version ofthe sequence is ready for distribution to other groups. In someimplementations, public users of enterprise learning system can addtheir content object sequences to education learning system, but may notbe able to restrict access to publicly available content objects, e.g.,a content object created by an employee of the enterprise learningsystem.

In some implementations, a user that creates a custom content objectsequence might automatically be designated as an owner of a contentobject sequence with ownership rights to distribute and modify thecontent object sequence. Other permission levels might include:consumers who can view content object sequences; contributors who canview, edit, but not publish content object sequences; or editors who canview, author, publish, and delete content object sequences. For example,contributors and editors might choose whether and how content objectsequences are shared for use with additional content object sequences,whereas owners and editors might be able to designate who can be addedas users of a private content object sequence. In some implementations,content object sequences can be curated, for instance, content objectsequences created by public users may have their content objectsequences sent to employees of enterprise learning system for approvalbefore being published to the enterprise learning system. In otherimplementations, security might be restricted through link sharing. Inother words, users with the link (provided by email or another manner ofnotification) may be the only users who can access a content objectsequence, and it would be inaccessible through a search of the educationlearning platform.

In block 220 of FIG. 2, content object sequence 110 of FIG. 1 isdisplayed on user interface 114 of user device 102 c. In someimplementations, content object sequences 504 a-504 f of FIG. 5 can bedisplayed after a user selects tab 502 e from tabs 502 a-502 e. Aftercompleting an educational content object, progress bar 510 a can beupdated automatically with an updated presentation reflecting thecompleted content object. In other cases, a user may have to manuallyselect a button indicating that he or she has completed the educationalcontent object.

Systems, apparatus, and methods are described below for implementingdatabase systems and enterprise level social and business informationnetworking systems in conjunction with the disclosed techniques. Suchimplementations can provide more efficient use of a database system. Forinstance, a user of a database system may not easily know when importantinformation in the database has changed, e.g., about a project orclient. Such implementations can provide feed tracked updates about suchchanges and other events, thereby keeping users informed.

By way of example, a user can update a record in the form of a CRMrecord, e.g., an opportunity such as a possible sale of 1000 computers.Once the record update has been made, a feed tracked update about therecord update can then automatically be provided, e.g., in a feed, toanyone subscribing to the opportunity or to the user. Thus, the userdoes not need to contact a manager regarding the change in theopportunity, since the feed tracked update about the update is sent viaa feed to the manager's feed page or other page.

FIG. 7A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service exists and can be used in accordancewith some implementations. Environment 10 may include user systems 12,network 14, database system 16, processor system 17, applicationplatform 18, network interface 20, tenant data storage 22, system datastorage 24, program code 26, and process space 28. In otherimplementations, environment 10 may not have all of these componentsand/or may have other components instead of, or in addition to, thoselisted above.

A user system 12 may be implemented as any computing device(s) or otherdata processing apparatus such as a machine or system used by a user toaccess a database system 16. For example, any of user systems 12 can bea handheld and/or portable computing device such as a mobile phone, asmartphone, a laptop computer, or a tablet. Other examples of a usersystem include computing devices such as a work station and/or a networkof computing devices. As illustrated in FIG. 7A (and in more detail inFIG. 7B) user systems 12 might interact via a network 14 with anon-demand database service, which is implemented in the example of FIG.7A as database system 16.

An on-demand database service, implemented using system 16 by way ofexample, is a service that is made available to users who do not need tonecessarily be concerned with building and/or maintaining the databasesystem. Instead, the database system may be available for their use whenthe users need the database system, i.e., on the demand of the users.Some on-demand database services may store information from one or moretenants into tables of a common database image to form a multi-tenantdatabase system (MTS). A database image may include one or more databaseobjects. A relational database management system (RDBMS) or theequivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information against thedatabase object(s). Application platform 18 may be a framework thatallows the applications of system 16 to run, such as the hardware and/orsoftware, e.g., the operating system. In some implementations,application platform 18 enables creation, managing and executing one ormore applications developed by the provider of the on-demand databaseservice, users accessing the on-demand database service via user systems12, or third party application developers accessing the on-demanddatabase service via user systems 12.

The users of user systems 12 may differ in their respective capacities,and the capacity of a particular user system 12 might be entirelydetermined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. Forexample, when a salesperson is using a particular user system 12 tointeract with system 16, the user system has the capacities allotted tothat salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that usersystem to interact with system 16, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical rolemodel, users at one permission level may have access to applications,data, and database information accessible by a lower permission leveluser, but may not have access to certain applications, databaseinformation, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level.Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard toaccessing and modifying application and database information, dependingon a user's security or permission level, also called authorization.

Network 14 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 14 can be any one orany combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network),telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. Network 14 can include a TCP/IP (Transfer ControlProtocol and Internet Protocol) network, such as the global internetworkof networks often referred to as the Internet. The Internet will be usedin many of the examples herein. However, it should be understood thatthe networks that the present implementations might use are not solimited.

User systems 12 might communicate with system 16 using TCP/IP and, at ahigher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 12 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP signals to and from anHTTP server at system 16. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface 20 between system 16 and network 14, butother techniques might be used as well or instead. In someimplementations, the network interface 20 between system 16 and network14 includes load sharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP requestdistributors to balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requestsevenly over a plurality of servers. At least for users accessing system16, each of the plurality of servers has access to the MTS' data;however, other alternative configurations may be used instead.

In one implementation, system 16, shown in FIG. 7A, implements aweb-based CRM system. For example, in one implementation, system 16includes application servers configured to implement and execute CRMsoftware applications as well as provide related data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and from user systems 12 and to store to,and retrieve from, a database system related data, objects, and Webpagecontent. With a multi-tenant system, data for multiple tenants may bestored in the same physical database object in tenant data storage 22,however, tenant data typically is arranged in the storage medium(s) oftenant data storage 22 so that data of one tenant is kept logicallyseparate from that of other tenants so that one tenant does not haveaccess to another tenant's data, unless such data is expressly shared.In certain implementations, system 16 implements applications otherthan, or in addition to, a CRM application. For example, system 16 mayprovide tenant access to multiple hosted (standard and custom)applications, including a CRM application. User (or third partydeveloper) applications, which may or may not include CRM, may besupported by the application platform 18, which manages creation,storage of the applications into one or more database objects andexecuting of the applications in a virtual machine in the process spaceof the system 16.

One arrangement for elements of system 16 is shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B,including a network interface 20, application platform 18, tenant datastorage 22 for tenant data 23, system data storage 24 for system data 25accessible to system 16 and possibly multiple tenants, program code 26for implementing various functions of system 16, and a process space 28for executing MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes, suchas running applications as part of an application hosting service.Additional processes that may execute on system 16 include databaseindexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 7A include conventional,well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 12 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol(WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other networkconnection. The term “computing device” is also referred to hereinsimply as a “computer”. User system 12 typically runs an HTTP client,e.g., a browsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser,Netscape's Navigator browser, Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browserin the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like,allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system)of user system 12 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from system 16 over network 14. Each usersystem 12 also typically includes one or more user input devices, suchas a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen or thelike, for interacting with a GUI provided by the browser on a display(e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, OLED display, etc.) of thecomputing device in conjunction with pages, forms, applications andother information provided by system 16 or other systems or servers.Thus, “display device” as used herein can refer to a display of acomputer system such as a monitor or touch-screen display, and can referto any computing device having display capabilities such as a desktopcomputer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, a television set-top box, orwearable device such Google Glass® or other human body-mounted displayapparatus. For example, the display device can be used to access dataand applications hosted by system 16, and to perform searches on storeddata, and otherwise allow a user to interact with various GUI pages thatmay be presented to a user. As discussed above, implementations aresuitable for use with the Internet, although other networks can be usedinstead of or in addition to the Internet, such as an intranet, anextranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network,any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one implementation, each user system 12 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system 16(and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) andall of its components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using processor system 17,which may be implemented to include a central processing unit, which mayinclude an Intel Pentium® processor or the like, and/or multipleprocessor units. Non-transitory computer-readable media can haveinstructions stored thereon/in, that can be executed by or used toprogram a computing device to perform any of the methods of theimplementations described herein. Computer program code 26 implementinginstructions for operating and configuring system 16 to intercommunicateand to process web pages, applications and other data and media contentas described herein is preferably downloadable and stored on a harddisk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof, may also bestored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device asis well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable ofstoring program code, such as any type of rotating media includingfloppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk(CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or opticalcards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any other typeof computer-readable medium or device suitable for storing instructionsand/or data. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof,may be transmitted and downloaded from a software source over atransmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, asis well known, or transmitted over any other conventional networkconnection as is well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using anycommunication medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet,etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated that computer codefor the disclosed implementations can be realized in any programminglanguage that can be executed on a client system and/or server or serversystem such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language,Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such asVBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known may beused. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

According to some implementations, each system 16 is configured toprovide web pages, forms, applications, data and media content to user(client) systems 12 to support the access by user systems 12 as tenantsof system 16. As such, system 16 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another(e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or theymay be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one ormore servers located in city A and one or more servers located in cityB). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant to referto one type of computing device such as a system including processinghardware and process space(s), an associated storage medium such as amemory device or database, and, in some instances, a databaseapplication (e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. Itshould also be understood that “server system” and “server” are oftenused interchangeably herein. Similarly, the database objects describedherein can be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

FIG. 7B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 7A and various possible interconnections between theseelements. That is, FIG. 7B also illustrates environment 10. However, inFIG. 7B elements of system 16 and various interconnections in someimplementations are further illustrated. FIG. 7B shows that user system12 may include processor system 12A, memory system 12B, input system12C, and output system 12D. FIG. 7B shows network 14 and system 16. FIG.7B also shows that system 16 may include tenant data storage 22, tenantdata 23, system data storage 24, system data 25, User Interface (UI) 30,Application Program Interface (API) 32, PL/SOQL 34, save routines 36,application setup mechanism 38, application servers 50 ₁-50 _(N), systemprocess space 52, tenant process spaces 54, tenant management processspace 60, tenant storage space 62, user storage 64, and applicationmetadata 66. In other implementations, environment 10 may not have thesame elements as those listed above and/or may have other elementsinstead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

User system 12, network 14, system 16, tenant data storage 22, andsystem data storage 24 were discussed above in FIG. 7A. Regarding usersystem 12, processor system 12A may be any combination of one or moreprocessors. Memory system 12B may be any combination of one or morememory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system 12Cmay be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards,mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks.Output system 12D may be any combination of output devices, such as oneor more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown byFIG. 7B, system 16 may include a network interface 20 (of FIG. 7A)implemented as a set of application servers 50, an application platform18, tenant data storage 22, and system data storage 24. Also shown issystem process space 52, including individual tenant process spaces 54and a tenant management process space 60. Each application server 50 maybe configured to communicate with tenant data storage 22 and the tenantdata 23 therein, and system data storage 24 and the system data 25therein to serve requests of user systems 12. The tenant data 23 mightbe divided into individual tenant storage spaces 62, which can be eithera physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangement of data. Within eachtenant storage space 62, user storage 64 and application metadata 66might be similarly allocated for each user. For example, a copy of auser's most recently used (MRU) items might be stored to user storage64. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entire organization that is atenant might be stored to tenant storage space 62. A UI 30 provides auser interface and an API 32 provides an application programmerinterface to system 16 resident processes to users and/or developers atuser systems 12. The tenant data and the system data may be stored invarious databases, such as one or more Oracle® databases.

Application platform 18 includes an application setup mechanism 38 thatsupports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage 22by save routines 36 for execution by subscribers as one or more tenantprocess spaces 54 managed by tenant management process 60 for example.Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 34 thatprovides a programming language style interface extension to API 32. Adetailed description of some PL/SOQL language implementations isdiscussed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478, titled METHODAND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING ACCESS TO DEVELOPED APPLICATIONS VIA AMULTI-TENANT ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE, by Craig Weissman, issued onJun. 1, 2010, and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety andfor all purposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one ormore system processes, which manage retrieving application metadata 66for the subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata asan application in a virtual machine.

Each application server 50 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 25 and tenant data 23, via adifferent network connection. For example, one application server 50 ₁might be coupled via the network 14 (e.g., the Internet), anotherapplication server 50 _(N-1) might be coupled via a direct network link,and another application server 50 _(N) might be coupled by yet adifferent network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and InternetProtocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating betweenapplication servers 50 and the database system. However, it will beapparent to one skilled in the art that other transport protocols may beused to optimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

In certain implementations, each application server 50 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 50. In one implementation, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 50 and the user systems 12 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 50. In one implementation, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 50. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, incertain implementations, three consecutive requests from the same usercould hit three different application servers 50, and three requestsfrom different users could hit the same application server 50. In thismanner, by way of example, system 16 is multi-tenant, wherein system 16handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data andapplications across disparate users and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 16 to manage their salesprocess. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customerfollow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., allapplicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant datastorage 22). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since all of the dataand the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit,calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system havingnothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her salesefforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example,if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internetaccess in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as tothat customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 16 that are allocated atthe tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions thatmay be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant-specific data, system 16 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain implementations, user systems 12 (which may be clientsystems) communicate with application servers 50 to request and updatesystem-level and tenant-level data from system 16 that may involvesending one or more queries to tenant data storage 22 and/or system datastorage 24. System 16 (e.g., an application server 50 in system 16)automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one or moreSQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information. Systemdata storage 24 may generate query plans to access the requested datafrom the database.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects according to some implementations. It should be understood that“table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein. Each tablegenerally contains one or more data categories logically arranged ascolumns or fields in a viewable schema. Each row or record of a tablecontains an instance of data for each category defined by the fields.For example, a CRM database may include a table that describes acustomer with fields for basic contact information such as name,address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table might describe apurchase order, including fields for information such as customer,product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant database systems,standard entity tables might be provided for use by all tenants. For CRMdatabase applications, such standard entities might include tables forcase, account, contact, lead, and opportunity data objects, eachcontaining pre-defined fields. It should be understood that the word“entity” may also be used interchangeably herein with “object” and“table”.

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No.7,779,039, titled CUSTOM ENTITIES AND FIELDS IN A MULTI-TENANT DATABASESYSTEM, by Weissman et al., issued on Aug. 17, 2010, and herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes, teachessystems and methods for creating custom objects as well as customizingstandard objects in a multi-tenant database system. In certainimplementations, for example, all custom entity data rows are stored ina single multi-tenant physical table, which may contain multiple logicaltables per organization. It is transparent to customers that theirmultiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that theirdata may be stored in the same table as the data of other customers.

FIG. 8A shows a system diagram of an example of architectural componentsof an on-demand database service environment 900, in accordance withsome implementations. A client machine located in the cloud 904,generally referring to one or more networks in combination, as describedherein, may communicate with the on-demand database service environmentvia one or more edge routers 908 and 912. A client machine can be any ofthe examples of user systems 12 described above. The edge routers maycommunicate with one or more core switches 920 and 924 via firewall 916.The core switches may communicate with a load balancer 928, which maydistribute server load over different pods, such as the pods 940 and944. The pods 940 and 944, which may each include one or more serversand/or other computing resources, may perform data processing and otheroperations used to provide on-demand services. Communication with thepods may be conducted via pod switches 932 and 936. Components of theon-demand database service environment may communicate with a databasestorage 956 via a database firewall 948 and a database switch 952.

As shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, accessing an on-demand database serviceenvironment may involve communications transmitted among a variety ofdifferent hardware and/or software components. Further, the on-demanddatabase service environment 900 is a simplified representation of anactual on-demand database service environment. For example, while onlyone or two devices of each type are shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, someimplementations of an on-demand database service environment may includeanywhere from one to many devices of each type. Also, the on-demanddatabase service environment need not include each device shown in FIGS.8A and 8B, or may include additional devices not shown in FIGS. 8A and8B.

Moreover, one or more of the devices in the on-demand database serviceenvironment 900 may be implemented on the same physical device or ondifferent hardware. Some devices may be implemented using hardware or acombination of hardware and software. Thus, terms such as “dataprocessing apparatus,” “machine,” “server” and “device” as used hereinare not limited to a single hardware device, but rather include anyhardware and software configured to provide the described functionality.

The cloud 904 is intended to refer to a data network or combination ofdata networks, often including the Internet. Client machines located inthe cloud 904 may communicate with the on-demand database serviceenvironment to access services provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. For example, client machines may access theon-demand database service environment to retrieve, store, edit, and/orprocess information.

In some implementations, the edge routers 908 and 912 route packetsbetween the cloud 904 and other components of the on-demand databaseservice environment 900. The edge routers 908 and 912 may employ theBorder Gateway Protocol (BGP). The BGP is the core routing protocol ofthe Internet. The edge routers 908 and 912 may maintain a table of IPnetworks or ‘prefixes’, which designate network reachability amongautonomous systems on the Internet.

In one or more implementations, the firewall 916 may protect the innercomponents of the on-demand database service environment 900 fromInternet traffic. The firewall 916 may block, permit, or deny access tothe inner components of the on-demand database service environment 900based upon a set of rules and other criteria. The firewall 916 may actas one or more of a packet filter, an application gateway, a statefulfilter, a proxy server, or any other type of firewall.

In some implementations, the core switches 920 and 924 are high-capacityswitches that transfer packets within the on-demand database serviceenvironment 900. The core switches 920 and 924 may be configured asnetwork bridges that quickly route data between different componentswithin the on-demand database service environment. In someimplementations, the use of two or more core switches 920 and 924 mayprovide redundancy and/or reduced latency.

In some implementations, the pods 940 and 944 may perform the core dataprocessing and service functions provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. Each pod may include various types of hardwareand/or software computing resources. An example of the pod architectureis discussed in greater detail with reference to FIG. 8B.

In some implementations, communication between the pods 940 and 944 maybe conducted via the pod switches 932 and 936. The pod switches 932 and936 may facilitate communication between the pods 940 and 944 and clientmachines located in the cloud 904, for example via core switches 920 and924. Also, the pod switches 932 and 936 may facilitate communicationbetween the pods 940 and 944 and the database storage 956.

In some implementations, the load balancer 928 may distribute workloadbetween the pods 940 and 944. Balancing the on-demand service requestsbetween the pods may assist in improving the use of resources,increasing throughput, reducing response times, and/or reducingoverhead. The load balancer 928 may include multilayer switches toanalyze and forward traffic.

In some implementations, access to the database storage 956 may beguarded by a database firewall 948. The database firewall 948 may act asa computer application firewall operating at the database applicationlayer of a protocol stack. The database firewall 948 may protect thedatabase storage 956 from application attacks such as structure querylanguage (SQL) injection, database rootkits, and unauthorizedinformation disclosure.

In some implementations, the database firewall 948 may include a hostusing one or more forms of reverse proxy services to proxy trafficbefore passing it to a gateway router. The database firewall 948 mayinspect the contents of database traffic and block certain content ordatabase requests. The database firewall 948 may work on the SQLapplication level atop the TCP/IP stack, managing applications'connection to the database or SQL management interfaces as well asintercepting and enforcing packets traveling to or from a databasenetwork or application interface.

In some implementations, communication with the database storage 956 maybe conducted via the database switch 952. The multi-tenant databasestorage 956 may include more than one hardware and/or softwarecomponents for handling database queries. Accordingly, the databaseswitch 952 may direct database queries transmitted by other componentsof the on-demand database service environment (e.g., the pods 940 and944) to the correct components within the database storage 956.

In some implementations, the database storage 956 is an on-demanddatabase system shared by many different organizations. The on-demanddatabase service may employ a multi-tenant approach, a virtualizedapproach, or any other type of database approach. On-demand databaseservices are discussed in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 8A and8B.

FIG. 8B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environment,in accordance with some implementations. The pod 944 may be used torender services to a user of the on-demand database service environment900. In some implementations, each pod may include a variety of serversand/or other systems. The pod 944 includes one or more content batchservers 964, content search servers 968, query servers 982, file servers986, access control system (ACS) servers 980, batch servers 984, and appservers 988. Also, the pod 944 includes database instances 990, quickfile systems (QFS) 992, and indexers 994. In one or moreimplementations, some or all communication between the servers in thepod 944 may be transmitted via the switch 936.

The content batch servers 964 may handle requests internal to the pod.These requests may be long-running and/or not tied to a particularcustomer. For example, the content batch servers 964 may handle requestsrelated to log mining, cleanup work, and maintenance tasks.

The content search servers 968 may provide query and indexer functions.For example, the functions provided by the content search servers 968may allow users to search through content stored in the on-demanddatabase service environment.

The file servers 986 may manage requests for information stored in thefile storage 998. The file storage 998 may store information such asdocuments, images, and basic large objects (BLOBs). By managing requestsfor information using the file servers 986, the image footprint on thedatabase may be reduced.

The query servers 982 may be used to retrieve information from one ormore file systems. For example, the query system 982 may receiverequests for information from the app servers 988 and then transmitinformation queries to the NFS 996 located outside the pod.

The pod 944 may share a database instance 990 configured as amulti-tenant environment in which different organizations share accessto the same database. Additionally, services rendered by the pod 944 maycall upon various hardware and/or software resources. In someimplementations, the ACS servers 980 may control access to data,hardware resources, or software resources.

In some implementations, the batch servers 984 may process batch jobs,which are used to run tasks at specified times. Thus, the batch servers984 may transmit instructions to other servers, such as the app servers988, to trigger the batch jobs.

In some implementations, the QFS 992 may be an open source file systemavailable from Sun Microsystems® of Santa Clara, Calif. The QFS mayserve as a rapid-access file system for storing and accessinginformation available within the pod 944. The QFS 992 may support somevolume management capabilities, allowing many disks to be groupedtogether into a file system. File system metadata can be kept on aseparate set of disks, which may be useful for streaming applicationswhere long disk seeks cannot be tolerated. Thus, the QFS system maycommunicate with one or more content search servers 968 and/or indexers994 to identify, retrieve, move, and/or update data stored in thenetwork file systems 996 and/or other storage systems.

In some implementations, one or more query servers 982 may communicatewith the NFS 996 to retrieve and/or update information stored outside ofthe pod 944. The NFS 996 may allow servers located in the pod 944 toaccess information to access files over a network in a manner similar tohow local storage is accessed.

In some implementations, queries from the query servers 922 may betransmitted to the NFS 996 via the load balancer 928, which maydistribute resource requests over various resources available in theon-demand database service environment. The NFS 996 may also communicatewith the QFS 992 to update the information stored on the NFS 996 and/orto provide information to the QFS 992 for use by servers located withinthe pod 944.

In some implementations, the pod may include one or more databaseinstances 990. The database instance 990 may transmit information to theQFS 992. When information is transmitted to the QFS, it may be availablefor use by servers within the pod 944 without using an additionaldatabase call.

In some implementations, database information may be transmitted to theindexer 994. Indexer 994 may provide an index of information availablein the database 990 and/or QFS 992. The index information may beprovided to file servers 986 and/or the QFS 992.

Some but not all of the techniques described or referenced herein areimplemented as part of or in conjunction with a social networkingdatabase system, also referred to herein as a social networking systemor as a social network. Social networking systems have become a popularway to facilitate communication among people, any of whom can berecognized as users of a social networking system. One example of asocial networking system is Chatter®, provided by salesforce.com, inc.of San Francisco, Calif. salesforce.com, inc. is a provider of socialnetworking services, CRM services and other database managementservices, any of which can be accessed and used in conjunction with thetechniques disclosed herein in some implementations. These variousservices can be provided in a cloud computing environment, for example,in the context of a multi-tenant database system. Thus, the disclosedtechniques can be implemented without having to install softwarelocally, that is, on computing devices of users interacting withservices available through the cloud. While the disclosedimplementations are often described with reference to Chatter®, thoseskilled in the art should understand that the disclosed techniques areneither limited to Chatter® nor to any other services and systemsprovided by salesforce.com, inc. and can be implemented in the contextof various other database systems and/or social networking systems suchas Facebook®, LinkedIn®, Twitter®, Google+®, Yammer® and Jive® by way ofexample only.

Some social networking systems can be implemented in various settings,including organizations. For instance, a social networking system can beimplemented to connect users within an enterprise such as a company orbusiness partnership, or a group of users within such an organization.For instance, Chatter® can be used by employee users in a division of abusiness organization to share data, communicate, and collaborate witheach other for various social purposes often involving the business ofthe organization. In the example of a multi-tenant database system, eachorganization or group within the organization can be a respective tenantof the system, as described in greater detail herein.

In some social networking systems, users can access one or more socialnetwork feeds, which include information updates presented as items orentries in the feed. Such a feed item can include a single informationupdate or a collection of individual information updates. A feed itemcan include various types of data including character-based data, audiodata, image data and/or video data. A social network feed can bedisplayed in a graphical user interface (GUI) on a display device suchas the display of a computing device as described herein. Theinformation updates can include various social network data from varioussources and can be stored in an on-demand database service environment.In some implementations, the disclosed methods, apparatus, systems, andcomputer-readable storage media may be configured or designed for use ina multi-tenant database environment.

In some implementations, a social networking system may allow a user tofollow data objects in the form of CRM records such as cases, accounts,or opportunities, in addition to following individual users and groupsof users. The “following” of a record stored in a database, as describedin greater detail herein, allows a user to track the progress of thatrecord when the user is subscribed to the record. Updates to the record,also referred to herein as changes to the record, are one type ofinformation update that can occur and be noted on a social network feedsuch as a record feed or a news feed of a user subscribed to the record.Examples of record updates include field changes in the record, updatesto the status of a record, as well as the creation of the record itself.Some records are publicly accessible, such that any user can follow therecord, while other records are private, for which appropriate securityclearance/permissions are a prerequisite to a user following the record.

Information updates can include various types of updates, which may ormay not be linked with a particular record. For example, informationupdates can be social media messages submitted by a user or canotherwise be generated in response to user actions or in response toevents. Examples of social media messages include: posts, comments,indications of a user's personal preferences such as “likes” and“dislikes”, updates to a user's status, uploaded files, anduser-submitted hyperlinks to social network data or other network datasuch as various documents and/or web pages on the Internet. Posts caninclude alpha-numeric or other character-based user inputs such aswords, phrases, statements, questions, emotional expressions, and/orsymbols. Comments generally refer to responses to posts or to otherinformation updates, such as words, phrases, statements, answers,questions, and reactionary emotional expressions and/or symbols.Multimedia data can be included in, linked with, or attached to a postor comment. For example, a post can include textual statements incombination with a JPEG image or animated image. A like or dislike canbe submitted in response to a particular post or comment. Examples ofuploaded files include presentations, documents, multimedia files, andthe like.

Users can follow a record by subscribing to the record, as mentionedabove. Users can also follow other entities such as other types of dataobjects, other users, and groups of users. Feed tracked updatesregarding such entities are one type of information update that can bereceived and included in the user's news feed. Any number of users canfollow a particular entity and thus view information updates pertainingto that entity on the users' respective news feeds. In some socialnetworks, users may follow each other by establishing connections witheach other, sometimes referred to as “friending” one another. Byestablishing such a connection, one user may be able to see informationgenerated by, generated about, or otherwise associated with anotheruser. For instance, a first user may be able to see information postedby a second user to the second user's personal social network page. Oneimplementation of such a personal social network page is a user'sprofile page, for example, in the form of a web page representing theuser's profile. In one example, when the first user is following thesecond user, the first user's news feed can receive a post from thesecond user submitted to the second user's profile feed. A user'sprofile feed is also referred to herein as the user's “wall,” which isone example of a social network feed displayed on the user's profilepage.

In some implementations, a social network feed may be specific to agroup of users of a social networking system. For instance, a group ofusers may publish a news feed. Members of the group may view and post tothis group feed in accordance with a permissions configuration for thefeed and the group. Information updates in a group context can alsoinclude changes to group status information.

In some implementations, when data such as posts or comments input fromone or more users are submitted to a social network feed for aparticular user, group, object, or other construct within a socialnetworking system, an email notification or other type of networkcommunication may be transmitted to all users following the user, group,or object in addition to the inclusion of the data as a feed item in oneor more feeds, such as a user's profile feed, a news feed, or a recordfeed. In some social networking systems, the occurrence of such anotification is limited to the first instance of a published input,which may form part of a larger conversation. For instance, anotification may be transmitted for an initial post, but not forcomments on the post. In some other implementations, a separatenotification is transmitted for each such information update.

The term “multi-tenant database system” generally refers to thosesystems in which various elements of hardware and/or software of adatabase system may be shared by one or more customers. For example, agiven application server may simultaneously process requests for a greatnumber of customers, and a given database table may store rows of datasuch as feed items for a potentially much greater number of customers.

An example of a “user profile” or “user's profile” is a database objector set of objects configured to store and maintain data about a givenuser of a social networking system and/or database system. The data caninclude general information, such as name, title, phone number, a photo,a biographical summary, and a status, e.g., text describing what theuser is currently doing. As mentioned herein, the data can includesocial media messages created by other users. Where there are multipletenants, a user is typically associated with a particular tenant. Forexample, a user could be a salesperson of a company, which is a tenantof the database system that provides a database service.

The term “record” generally refers to a data entity having fields withvalues and stored in database system. An example of a record is aninstance of a data object created by a user of the database service, forexample, in the form of a CRM record about a particular (actual orpotential) business relationship or project. The record can have a datastructure defined by the database service (a standard object) or definedby a user (custom object). For example, a record can be for a businesspartner or potential business partner (e.g., a client, vendor,distributor, etc.) of the user, and can include information describingan entire company, subsidiaries, or contacts at the company. As anotherexample, a record can be a project that the user is working on, such asan opportunity (e.g., a possible sale) with an existing partner, or aproject that the user is trying to get. In one implementation of amulti-tenant database system, each record for the tenants has a uniqueidentifier stored in a common table. A record has data fields that aredefined by the structure of the object (e.g., fields of certain datatypes and purposes). A record can also have custom fields defined by auser. A field can be another record or include links thereto, therebyproviding a parent-child relationship between the records.

The terms “social network feed” and “feed” are used interchangeablyherein and generally refer to a combination (e.g., a list) of feed itemsor entries with various types of information and data. Such feed itemscan be stored and maintained in one or more database tables, e.g., asrows in the table(s), that can be accessed to retrieve relevantinformation to be presented as part of a displayed feed. The term “feeditem” (or feed element) generally refers to an item of information,which can be presented in the feed such as a post submitted by a user.Feed items of information about a user can be presented in a user'sprofile feed of the database, while feed items of information about arecord can be presented in a record feed in the database, by way ofexample. A profile feed and a record feed are examples of differenttypes of social network feeds. A second user following a first user anda record can receive the feed items associated with the first user andthe record for display in the second user's news feed, which is anothertype of social network feed. In some implementations, the feed itemsfrom any number of followed users and records can be combined into asingle social network feed of a particular user.

As examples, a feed item can be a social media message, such as auser-generated post of text data, and a feed tracked update to a recordor profile, such as a change to a field of the record. Feed trackedupdates are described in greater detail herein. A feed can be acombination of social media messages and feed tracked updates. Socialmedia messages include text created by a user, and may include otherdata as well. Examples of social media messages include posts, userstatus updates, and comments. Social media messages can be created for auser's profile or for a record. Posts can be created by various users,potentially any user, although some restrictions can be applied. As anexample, posts can be made to a wall section of a user's profile page(which can include a number of recent posts) or a section of a recordthat includes multiple posts. The posts can be organized inchronological order when displayed in a GUI, for instance, on the user'sprofile page, as part of the user's profile feed. In contrast to a post,a user status update changes a status of a user and can be made by thatuser or an administrator. A record can also have a status, the update ofwhich can be provided by an owner of the record or other users havingsuitable write access permissions to the record. The owner can be asingle user, multiple users, or a group.

In some implementations, a comment can be made on any feed item. In someimplementations, comments are organized as a list explicitly tied to aparticular feed tracked update, post, or status update. In someimplementations, comments may not be listed in the first layer (in ahierarchal sense) of feed items, but listed as a second layer branchingfrom a particular first layer feed item.

A “feed tracked update,” also referred to herein as a “feed update,” isone type of information update and generally refers to data representingan event. A feed tracked update can include text generated by thedatabase system in response to the event, to be provided as one or morefeed items for possible inclusion in one or more feeds. In oneimplementation, the data can initially be stored, and then the databasesystem can later use the data to create text for describing the event.Both the data and/or the text can be a feed tracked update, as usedherein. In various implementations, an event can be an update of arecord and/or can be triggered by a specific action by a user. Whichactions trigger an event can be configurable. Which events have feedtracked updates created and which feed updates are sent to which userscan also be configurable. Social media messages and other types of feedupdates can be stored as a field or child object of the record. Forexample, the feed can be stored as a child object of the record.

A “group” is generally a collection of users. In some implementations,the group may be defined as users with a same or similar attribute, orby membership. In some implementations, a “group feed”, also referred toherein as a “group news feed”, includes one or more feed items about anyuser in the group. In some implementations, the group feed also includesinformation updates and other feed items that are about the group as awhole, the group's purpose, the group's description, and group recordsand other objects stored in association with the group. Threads ofinformation updates including group record updates and social mediamessages, such as posts, comments, likes, etc., can define groupconversations and change over time.

An “entity feed” or “record feed” generally refers to a feed of feeditems about a particular record in the database. Such feed items caninclude feed tracked updates about changes to the record and posts madeby users about the record. An entity feed can be composed of any type offeed item. Such a feed can be displayed on a page such as a web pageassociated with the record, e.g., a home page of the record. As usedherein, a “profile feed” or “user's profile feed” generally refers to afeed of feed items about a particular user. In one example, the feeditems for a profile feed include posts and comments that other usersmake about or send to the particular user, and status updates made bythe particular user. Such a profile feed can be displayed on a pageassociated with the particular user. In another example, feed items in aprofile feed could include posts made by the particular user and feedtracked updates initiated based on actions of the particular user.

While some of the disclosed implementations may be described withreference to a system having an application server providing a front endfor an on-demand database service capable of supporting multipletenants, the disclosed implementations are not limited to multi-tenantdatabases nor deployment on application servers. Some implementationsmay be practiced using various database architectures such as ORACLE®,DB2® by IBM and the like without departing from the scope of theimplementations claimed.

It should be understood that some of the disclosed implementations canbe embodied in the form of control logic using hardware and/or computersoftware in a modular or integrated manner. Other ways and/or methodsare possible using hardware and a combination of hardware and software.

Any of the disclosed implementations may be embodied in various types ofhardware, software, firmware, and combinations thereof. For example,some techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, at least in part,by computer-readable media that include program instructions, stateinformation, etc., for performing various services and operationsdescribed herein. Examples of program instructions include both machinecode, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher-levelcode that may be executed by a computing device such as a server orother data processing apparatus using an interpreter. Examples ofcomputer-readable media include, but are not limited to: magnetic mediasuch as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media suchas flash memory, compact disk (CD) or digital versatile disk (DVD);magneto-optical media; and hardware devices specially configured tostore program instructions, such as read-only memory (“ROM”) devices andrandom access memory (“RAM”) devices. A computer-readable medium may beany combination of such storage devices.

Any of the operations and techniques described in this application maybe implemented as software code to be executed by a processor using anysuitable computer language such as, for example, Java, C++ or Perlusing, for example, object-oriented techniques. The software code may bestored as a series of instructions or commands on a computer-readablemedium. Computer-readable media encoded with the software/program codemay be packaged with a compatible device or provided separately fromother devices (e.g., via Internet download). Any such computer-readablemedium may reside on or within a single computing device or an entirecomputer system, and may be among other computer-readable media within asystem or network. A computer system or computing device may include amonitor, printer, or other suitable display for providing any of theresults mentioned herein to a user.

While various implementations have been described herein, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present applicationshould not be limited by any of the implementations described herein,but should be defined only in accordance with the following andlater-submitted claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: an enterprise learningsystem implemented using a server system, the enterprise learning systemconfigurable to cause: displaying a plurality of educational contentobjects in a first user interface of a first user device of a first oneof a plurality of users of the enterprise learning system; processing afirst selection of a first one of the educational content objects;responsive to processing the first selection of the first educationalcontent object, generating or updating a content object sequencecomprising a sequential order of educational content objectscustomizable by the first user, the first educational content objectbeing added to the content object sequence; processing a secondselection of a second one of the educational content objects differentfrom the first educational content object; responsive to processing thesecond selection of the second educational content object, adding thesecond educational content object to the content object sequence; andsharing the content object sequence with at least a second one of theusers of the enterprise learning system; and displaying the contentobject sequence in a second user interface of a second user device ofthe second user.
 2. The system of claim 1, the enterprise learningsystem further configurable to cause: processing a modification to thesecond educational content object, the modification changing or updatingthe sequential order of the educational content objects.
 3. The systemof claim 2, wherein processing the modification to the secondeducational content object comprises: providing, using a recommendationengine, a third one of the educational content objects to the first userinterface of the first user device, the third educational content objectrepresenting a recommended content object; processing a third selectionof the third educational content object; and responsive to processingthe third selection of the third educational content object, adding thethird educational content object to the content object sequence.
 4. Thesystem of claim 2, wherein processing the modification to the secondeducational content object comprises: assigning a first position of thesequential order to the first educational content object; and assigning,based on the assigned first position, a second position of thesequential order to the second educational content object.
 5. The systemof claim 1, wherein the educational content objects include one or moreof: a unit object, a module object, a path object, a badge object, aproject object, a custom object, or an assessment.
 6. The system ofclaim 1, wherein sharing the content object sequence with the seconduser comprises: identifying a permission associated with the seconduser; and determining that the second user has access to the contentobject sequence based on the identified permission.
 7. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the generating or updating of the content objectsequence is based on a first application programming interface (API)request of a public API, and wherein sharing the content object sequencewith the second user is based on a second API request of the public APIdifferent from the first API request, the public API being an extensiblepublic programming interface configured to assign and/or track contentobject sequences based on organizational needs.
 8. The system of claim1, the enterprise learning system further configurable to cause:providing a first preview presentation of the content object sequence tothe first user interface of the first user device; and providing asecond preview presentation to the second user interface of the seconduser device, the second preview presentation being inaccessible to oneor more further user devices.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein sharingthe content object sequence with the second user includes sharing thecontent object sequence with a public user of a social networking systemcontrolled by a first provider different from a second providercontrolling the enterprise learning system.
 10. The system of claim 1,wherein displaying the content object sequence in the second userinterface of the second user device of the second user includesdisplaying a progress bar representing an amount of progress towardscompletion of the content object sequence.
 11. A method comprising:causing display of a plurality of educational content objects in a firstuser interface of a first user device of a first one of a plurality ofusers of an enterprise learning system; processing a first selection ofa first one of the educational content objects; responsive to processingthe first selection of the first educational content object, generatingor updating a content object sequence comprising a sequential order ofeducational content objects customizable by the first user, the firsteducational content object being added to the content object sequence;processing a second selection of a second one of the educational contentobjects different from the first educational content object; responsiveto processing the second selection of the second educational contentobject, adding the second educational content object to the contentobject sequence; and sharing the content object sequence with at least asecond one of the users of the enterprise learning system; and causingdisplay of the content object sequence in a second user interface of asecond user device of the second user.
 12. The method of claim 11, themethod further comprising: processing a modification to the secondeducational content object, the modification changing or updating thesequential order of the educational content objects.
 13. The method ofclaim 12, wherein processing the modification to the second educationalcontent object comprises: providing, using a recommendation engine, athird one of the educational content objects to the first user interfaceof the first user device, the third educational content objectrepresenting a recommended content object; processing a third selectionof the third educational content object; and responsive to processingthe third selection of the third educational content object, adding thethird educational content object to the content object sequence.
 14. Themethod of claim 12, wherein processing the modification to the secondeducational content object comprises: assigning a first position of thesequential order to the first educational content object; and assigning,based on the assigned first position, a second position of thesequential order to the second educational content object.
 15. Themethod of claim 11, wherein the educational content objects include oneor more of: a unit object, a module object, a path object, a badgeobject, a project object, a custom object, or an assessment.
 16. Themethod of claim 11, wherein sharing the content object sequence with thesecond user comprises: identifying a permission associated with thesecond user; and determining that the second user has access to thecontent object sequence based on the identified permission.
 17. Themethod of claim 11, wherein the generating or updating of the contentobject sequence is based on a first application programming interface(API) request of a public API, and wherein sharing the content objectsequence with the second user is based on a second API request of thepublic API different from the first API request, the public API being anextensible public programming interface configured to assign and/ortrack content object sequences based on organizational needs.
 18. Themethod of claim 11, the method further comprising: providing a firstpreview presentation of the content object sequence to the first userinterface of the first user device; and providing a second previewpresentation to the second user interface of the second user device, thesecond preview presentation being inaccessible to one or more furtheruser devices.
 19. A computer program product comprisingcomputer-readable program code to be executed by one or more processorswhen retrieved from a non-transitory computer-readable medium, theprogram code including instructions configurable to cause: displaying aplurality of educational content objects in a first user interface of afirst user device of a first one of a plurality of users of anenterprise learning system; processing a first selection of a first oneof the educational content objects; responsive to processing the firstselection of the first educational content object, generating orupdating a content object sequence comprising a sequential order ofeducational content objects customizable by the first user, the firsteducational content object being added to the content object sequence;processing a second selection of a second one of the educational contentobjects different from the first educational content object; responsiveto processing the second selection of the second educational contentobject, adding the second educational content object to the contentobject sequence; and sharing the content object sequence with at least asecond one of the users of the enterprise learning system; anddisplaying the content object sequence in a second user interface of asecond user device of the second user.
 20. The computer program productof claim 19, the instructions further configurable to cause: processinga modification to the second educational content object, themodification changing or updating the sequential order of theeducational content objects.